A Business Born From Adversity: Access Travel Opens World To Disabled

Tim Daly has struggled up stairs to reach his “handicapped-accessible” room. He’s grappled with slick doorknobs and tripped flat in airports. And more times than he can count, Daly has had to trundle with his walker through kitchens and back alleys to reach conference rooms.

He knows what a nightmare it can be to be a disabled traveler. “Accessibility is more than a hand-rail,” he says. “I have a perspective born of experience. I learned the Ôwork-arounds’ the hard way.”

Traveling, however, doesn’t have to be difficult for those 54 million Americans who are disabled, he contends. But 39 million of them, according to the U.S. Census, think it’s too troublesome to travel. Daly, who has a neurological disease that results in poor coordination and balance, is out to change that. In 1995, he founded Access Travel, a travel agency catering to the disabled traveler.

“You try being someone approaching 50 years of age with an obvious physical disability. I don’t care what your track record is, nobody is going to hire you,” Daly says.

His self-esteem plummeted. Stuck at home all day, with only his English sheepdog Sterling around (“He’s a great companion, but not much of a conversationalist,” Daly says), he decided to take a few college courses, one of which was on the travel industry. His idea took shape in 1995: a travel agency catering to those who have mobility trouble _ those in wheelchairs or who use canes or walkers.

“I found there was a huge need,” Daly says. “And I guess I’m enough of a ham, and I was in sales and marketing for 26 years. I thought, ÔGee, I can do that.’ I have a disability myself, I wanted to give something back.”

He had the ideas, but he needed the cash to back it up. One afternoon in 1997, he emerged from a Toastmasters International meeting in a downpour. Resigned to getting soaked, he started toward his car, but a stranger held an umbrella over his head. She turned out to be Ellen Dize, who works for the state’s Small Business Development Center. By the time they reached his car, he had her card and a promise to help. Call it pennies from heaven.

Dize told him about a state grant program for the disabled called RISE, Reaching Independence through Self-Employment. With help from his research into local travel agencies, organizations for the disabled and a complement of Internet resources, Daly devised a business plan that helped him circumvent the grant’s required six-month training program.

The grant helped him buy computers, print brochures and move from a desk in his stifling laundry room to a refurbished office in his garage. With the aid of an old Glenelg High School classmate, Ron Eyre, he’s now affiliated with Eyre Tour and Travel Ñ with access to all their nifty buses with the wheelchair lifts. And he’s organized Caribbean and Alaskan cruises, airline trips and group hotel stays for hundreds of disabled travelers. He’s negotiating a contract with the U.S. Army to provide travel arrangements for their disabled employees. He’ll be writing a travel column in a national disability magazine. He’s giving presentations to groups like the Multiple Sclerosis Society and the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

“It’s just exploded,” Daly says.

The state Department of Rehabilitative Services recently called, asking if he could be photographed for their calendar of success stories. “So I’m going to be a poster boy,” he laughs.

But what’s most rewarding, he says, is meeting the people, like him, who surmount obstacles. He’s been speaking with a woman recently, the president of national group of people with a liver disease who are going on a retreat Daly organized in West Virginia. She has three small children, is in a wheelchair, and is waiting for a second liver transplant. “She’s one of the most upbeat people,” he says. Travel, he says, can add to the self-esteem of anyone, but especially people with disabilities. “I think that is the biggest benefit for the disabled traveler. Travel is like a microcosm of life, you’re constantly faced with adapting, and that increases your self-confidence.”

Tips for Travelers

Daly offers some tips for disabled travelers:

¥ Choose a vacation with an environment you can control as much as possible.

¥ Cruises are among the best options, and cruise lines like Princess and Holland America are among the most accommodating.

¥ For a land trip, try a bus journey and make sure the bus has wheelchair lockdowns and hydraulic lifts.